Medical treatment often requires the administration of a therapeutic agent (e.g., medicament, drugs, etc.) to a particular part of a patient's body. As patients live longer and are diagnosed with chronic and/or debilitating ailments, the need to place even more protein therapeutics, small-molecule drugs, and other medications into targeted anatomical areas will only increase. Some maladies, however, are difficult to treat with currently available therapies and/or require administration of drugs to difficult-to-reach anatomical regions. Many of these therapies would benefit from concentrated target-area treatment, which would reduce systemic side effects. Furthermore, certain drugs such as protein therapeutics are expensive, costing thousands of dollar per vial. For these reasons, new and improved approaches to targeted drug delivery are constantly sought.
Implantable drug-delivery devices with refillable drug reservoirs address and overcome many of the problems associated with conventional drug-delivery modalities. They generally facilitate controlled delivery of pharmaceutical solutions to a specified target. As the contents of the drug reservoir deplete, a clinician may refill the reservoir in situ, i.e., while leaving the device implanted within the patient's body.
As implantable devices of varying sizes, refill requirements, and implant locations become available, the refill process becomes progressively complicated. However, the refill systems themselves and the associated processes have not fundamentally improved. Current refill systems may use intricate systems of syringes, multiple three-way valves, pinch valves, etc. that are manually or electronically actuated to transition from open to closed positions throughout the refill process. These systems have a learning curve and multiple steps that are prone to human or programming error. Additionally, if refill is performed manually, improper or sub-optimal needle insertion may cause damage to the drug-delivery device, additional patient discomfort or, worse, danger to the patient.
Therefore, ways of simplifying the procedure and reducing the number of potential errors is highly desired.